The Bridge God Built: Grace vs. Religion

• World Religions Comparison [00:00:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the concept that many world religions are like 'wardrobe malfunctions' or failed human attempts to reach God, contrasting them with Christianity.
• Hinduism [00:05:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > Described as highly complex, involving 330 million gods, karma, and reincarnation, illustrated as a Peloton bike where one burns energy but goes nowhere.
• Buddhism [00:10:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > Described as a 'dialed down form of Hinduism' focused on the Four Noble Truths and eliminating desire, illustrated as a giant eraser.
• Mormonism [00:14:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Referred to as the 'maze of Mormonism,' noted for its strong marketing but distinct from Christianity, with a guest expert (Cliff Connelly) providing insight.
• Christianity vs. Islam [00:16:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > A guest speaker explains that Muslims view Jesus as a good prophet, whereas Christians believe Jesus claimed to be God in human form, creating a theological divide.
• World Religions and Apologetics [00:16:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the importance of understanding various faith systems (Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism) to love neighbors effectively and communicate Christian truth clearly.
• Mormonism Theology [00:18:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Detailed critique of Mormon beliefs, including the nature of Jesus, polytheism, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith's character, and the concept of eternal progression.
• Tolerance vs. Truth [00:20:02 ▶️ 📄]
  > Defining tolerance not as agreement, but as respecting someone despite disagreement, and rejecting the idea that all religions believe the same thing.
• Sincerity vs. Reality [00:30:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the analogy of gravity to illustrate that being sincere about a false belief (like not believing in gravity) does not change the objective reality or consequences.
• Biblical Authority and Warning [00:31:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites Revelation 22:18-19 to warn against adding to or taking away from God's word, emphasizing the directness of the Bible.
• False Prophets [00:32:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > References Matthew 7 to warn against false prophets who appear as sheep but are inwardly ferocious wolves.
• Comparison of Religions [00:32:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Contrasts Hinduism (escape), Buddhism (detachment), Mormonism (becoming), and Christianity (grace and mercy).
• The Bridge vs. Construction Plan Metaphor [00:32:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Uses the analogy of trashing a man-made 'construction plan' with hard hats and cranes to accept the 'bridge' God has built to a specific destination (Jesus).
• Resurrection Evidence [00:34:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > Uses the story of the billionaire to highlight that while world religion leaders' tombs are occupied, Christ's tomb is empty, providing evidence for the Christian faith.

• Sermon Illustration [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story about a man at a hamburger restaurant with a 30-foot tail of toilet paper tucked into his belt, used as an analogy for world religions having a 'wardrobe malfunction' that no one has pointed out.
• Sermon Illustration [00:10:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy comparing Hinduism to a Peloton stationary bicycle, where one rides and burns energy but doesn't really get anywhere.
• Sermon Illustration [00:12:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy comparing Buddhism to a giant eraser, used to illustrate the concept of erasing desire.
• Sermon Illustration [00:14:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > A personal anecdote about the pastor eating an omelet made by his wife Lisa while studying world religions and calling his friend Cliff Connelly for insights.
• Sermon Illustration [00:16:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a conversation with his friend Cliff about why Christians should study other religions, emphasizing listening as an act of love.
• Sermon Illustration [00:23:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares the story of Joseph Smith finding golden tablets, using 'Mormon sunglasses' to read them, and the lack of archaeological evidence for the Book of Mormon.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy comparing religious sincerity to believing in the non-existence of gravity: one can sincerely believe gravity doesn't exist, but jumping off a roof will still result in injury.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > An illustration of a 'man-made construction plan' with hard hats and cranes versus the 'bridge God has built' to represent salvation by works versus salvation by grace.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a personal anecdote from the early 1990s where he visited a billionaire at his massive home. The billionaire expressed a 'cafeteria style' approach to faith, wanting to mix elements from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. The pastor responded by pointing out that the tombs of world religion leaders are occupied, but Christ's tomb is empty, leading him to 'put his money on the one who came back from the grave.'

• Pastoral Charge [00:32:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > Abandon self-reliance and accept God's salvation
• Pastoral Charge [00:35:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > To verbally surrender one's life to Jesus Christ as a declaration of faith.
• Pastoral Charge [00:36:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > To continue studying and exploring faith if not yet ready to commit.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:00] You know, Lisa and I were at a hamburger restaurant this past summer, and it's one of these restaurants where they had all these picnic tables outside, and Lisa goes, Honey, look at this guy! And we saw a guy across the way, and he was walking around, and he had a T-Rex tail of toilet paper, I mean, 30 feet behind him, tucked into his belt, just walking around.
[00:00:25] And I started laughing.
[00:00:29] I kind of did the facepalm thing.
[00:00:31] And then I thought, surely someone's got to walk up to him and say, bro, listen, you've got a T-Rex tail, you know, of toilet paper.
[00:00:39] And someone did.
[00:00:41] And I was, I was happy that that happened, but that's, that's embarrassing.
[00:00:45] You know, definitely a wardrobe malfunction.
[00:00:49] I think it's true when you think about the world religions that a lot of world religions are walking around with a T-Rex tail.
[00:00:59] They're walking around with about 30 feet of toilet paper and no one has said anything.
[00:01:06] No one has said, hey, you have a wardrobe malfunction.
[00:01:12] Here at Fellowship, we've been doing that over the last several weeks.
[00:01:17] Jesus said these words in Matthew 22, 39.
[00:01:21] Love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:01:24] if we truly are going to love each other the way we should we need to understand one another so to understand one another we need to go all right is that what you believe interesting is
[00:01:40] that your faith system that's fascinating as believers the more we know about other world religions the more we can converse and connect and get to know one another and i believe we have an opportunity to share with them the difference that Christianity makes. Because we've been
[00:02:03] saying here, Christianity is unique compared to all of the other world religions. It really, really is. And today we're going to do a flyover. We're just going to kind of look at three major world religions. I'm not going to get too specific. If you want to get specific,
[00:02:24] They're great books to read.
[00:02:26] The best book is the book I recommended last week by Lee Strobel called The Case for Christ.
[00:02:33] Lee talks about some of these world religions there and you can study and find other resources and another resource that I love, he's a close friend of mine, is Cliff Connectly.
[00:02:46] And we're gonna be hearing from Cliff in this message, believe it or not, about some of these issues because no one has talked to more people about world religions than Cliff Connectly. Millions of people around the world. It's exciting
[00:03:00] though, to discuss these issues, these things, because a lot of people say, like I told you, a guy told me on a flight the other day, hey man, all religions are kind of the same. I mean,
[00:03:14] all religions are basically different bridges that lead to one destination. And I responded by saying hey i i understand where you're coming from but i said that's not really accurate i said the more you study the more you're going to realize whoa christianity is different here's
[00:03:32] the difference the major difference in world religions and other faith systems they are a colossal construction project where man has tried to build a bridge from his side all the way to God's side. That is religion. Man attempting to build a bridge from his side to God's side
[00:03:57] by being good, by being philosophical, and so forth. Christianity is different.
[00:04:04] God took responsibility upon himself. He saw the gap caused by our sin. He saw the delta.
[00:04:11] it. God took responsibility upon himself. He sent Jesus Christ and it took 33 years because Jesus was 33 years when he ascended into the heavenlies and Jesus was born and he lived this righteous life. That's the bridge deck. He died on the cross for our sins. Then three days later, he rose again
[00:04:45] so in essence the ribbon cutting ceremony took place Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago because the bridge was complete Jesus said the project is finished let's talk about some of these world religions right quick one of them is Hinduism Hinduism we have a lot of Hindus in our world
[00:05:14] 1.2 billion Hindus. Hinduism is as cultural as it is religious. Hinduism is one of the oldest religions, specifically 1400 BC. It's highly complex. Isn't it funny how we like things that are complex? Have you noticed that? Ask someone a question. Oh man, it's
[00:05:43] just complex. Wow, I really liked that sermon. It was just so complex. No, I don't want things complex. I want things understandable. So it's easy to keep the complex complex, but it's another thing to make the complex simple and understandable. So Hinduism is highly, highly complex.
[00:06:13] one sect has over 330 million gods 330 million gods and one of the difficulties that a Christian has in sharing with a Hindu is oftentimes Hindus will go yeah Jesus I'll add him to the mix that's that's great man I'm down with that and and it's it's it's uh Hinduism to really
[00:06:39] understand it is like trying to tackle Patrick Mahomes you can't I mean it isn't Mahomes unique It kind of does this. You can't tackle him. You can't tackle him. Hinduism is basically a cocktail of folklore, mythology, and gods of fertility. That's what it is. It's all jumbled up into
[00:07:04] that. But basically, you've got the big four in Hinduism, and you want to remember these, okay?
[00:07:10] Number one, Brahma. Brahma or Brahman. Brahma is the impersonal force, the absolute one. You'll hear them talk a lot about that. Also, karma. Karma is the law of reaping and sowing. So number one, Brahma. Number two, karma. And number three, Atman. Atman is kind of like the soul, sort of,
[00:07:33] and the soul transmigrates into higher life forms in Hinduism. So basically, you start out as a bug, and hopefully if you have good karma, you'll become a billionaire.
[00:07:45] Then samsara is the cycle of reincarnation.
[00:07:50] Think about your washing machine.
[00:07:53] Think about loads and loads of dirty laundry you put in the washing machine.
[00:07:58] The washing machine just goes round and round and round.
[00:08:04] If you, as a good Hindu, have enough good karma and you put that in the spin cycle of reincarnation, hopefully you'll spin out and enter nirvana or moksha which is total and complete detachment isn't that interesting now there's some good elements here i'm not i'm not here to hate on
[00:08:28] hindus or to bash the buddhists or to malign the mormons no no no we're talking about their religion. We're not attacking someone personally. So if you think that's our vibe, it's totally not the deal. I am saying though, that Hinduism is a very small bridge. I mean, if you try to compare
[00:08:55] a bridge for ants, some of you got that. Yeah. Now that was funny. A lot of people did not get that joke you just google that when you get home a bridge for ants or maybe a bridge for people
[00:09:19] that don't read good is that it okay so anyway this is like the bridge of hinduism compared to the bridge god's built i mean that's that's the kind of scale that we're talking about does it have some good elements of good stuff yeah it does but if you think about hinduism it
[00:09:41] basically, it basically brings together good, evil, justice, and injustice. So it's very sexy for the relativist, you know, the, the A-listers, you know, those, those cool people, because there's, there's no sin. There's no, there's no real issues. There's no really immorality.
[00:10:03] You just, you know, I'm a Hindu. I'm a Hindu. And many Hindus don't even really know what they believe. And, and, and we're seeing though, a lot of Hindus come to Christ. So the overarching
[00:10:18] illustration of Hinduism would be the Peloton. Anybody have a Peloton? I do. Okay. Peloton is a stationary bicycle, basically on, on peptides and you, and you, and you ride it and you ride it and you ride it and you burn all this energy and all this effort, but you don't really get
[00:10:37] anywhere that's hinduism that's hinduism now let's move on the map northeast and let's talk about buddhism let's go to japan china and korea let's talk about buddhism buddhism is basically a dialed down form of hinduism and a lot of people in our in our culture are buddhists
[00:10:59] not anywhere near the number of hindus i think there's about 500 million buddhists worldwide this religion started in 525 BC. There was a gentleman named Siddhartha Gautama. Don't you love that name? And Siddhartha was a Hindu. He grew up in a very strict Hindu household.
[00:11:26] And one day he thought, you know what, I'm going to bolt from Hinduism. And he left and he decided to become an ascetic monk, he found himself one day meditating under a Bodhi tree. And when he
[00:11:41] emerged 40 days later, he said, I am Buddha, the enlightened one. So he came up with this system and we would call it, obviously we call it today, Buddhism.
[00:12:04] Four noble truths.
[00:12:08] Number one, here we go.
[00:12:10] This is if you want to be a Buddhist.
[00:12:12] Suffering is universal.
[00:12:15] Now I'm not sure it's taken me 40 days and 40 nights to figure that one out, but wow, that's enlightening.
[00:12:22] Suffering is universal.
[00:12:23] I mean, I'm not making fun.
[00:12:24] I just, this is like, are you kidding me?
[00:12:26] Number two, craving is the root cause of suffering.
[00:12:31] Number three, the cure for suffering is to eliminate craving.
[00:12:41] Number four, you follow the eightfold path and hopefully you become detached and you erase desire.
[00:12:55] When you think about Buddhism, think about a giant eraser you're just erasing desire I admire Siddhartha's desire to help the poor and the suffering I admire that and we should admire that but it takes desire to help the poor
[00:13:17] it takes desire to live the life it takes desire to be the right kind of husband the right kind of wife. It takes desire. So to eradicate desire, you see, it's just paradoxical. It's again,
[00:13:29] like trying to tackle Patrick Mahomes, Hinduism, Buddhism. Let's jump to another one.
[00:13:45] And this is always controversial when I talk about this topic. And I'm going to talk about Mormonism. Yesterday morning, I got up, I was doing some studying and Lisa made me this omelet.
[00:14:03] she delivered it to me in my study it was great it doesn't happen every day i'm not trying to put any pressure on any wives here i'm just saying i'm just going to tell you what happened yesterday
[00:14:17] so i'm eating this and i'm studying and i've i've taken a deep dive in all of these religions again i don't want to get you all mixed up and messed up with all the complexities and the nuances
[00:14:31] is, I'm just trying to give you kind of a vibe. I've talked about the Peloton. I've talked about the eraser. The Peloton is Hinduism, you know, spin cycle of success. Hopefully, you know, if you have enough good karma, you'll get thrown out of that into moksha. So that's the word
[00:14:52] picture. The word picture for Buddhism is this giant eraser. We erase desire, which is odd because we are people of desire.
[00:15:02] Desires are divine.
[00:15:04] They're given to us by God.
[00:15:05] So I want you to get those word pictures and think about when you're talking to people from another faith system, you understand kind of where they're coming from.
[00:15:15] Well, Mormonism, I call it the maze of Mormonism, is a unique faith system.
[00:15:25] If you talk about Microsoft, if you talk about Apple, if you talk about Nike, you would go, oh, yeah, those are some of the best. I mean, those companies have some of the best marketing ever. Well, they pale in comparison to the Mormon church.
[00:15:39] The Mormon church has hired some of the best marketers in the universe, and they have positioned themselves aside and along Christianity. Mormons are not Christians. The religion is not a Christian religion. So I'm eating my omelet yesterday and I'm thinking, I'm going to call
[00:16:02] Cliff, my man, Cliff Connectly. And I'm just going to talk to him about some of these, some of these things. And because again, he's talked to squillions of people one-on-one about world religions. And, and, and so I had Lisa after she made this omelet to record this conversation.
[00:16:20] Do you mind if I show you this? It's from my house. It's a little invasive, but you don't care do you here's here's my conversation with cliff yesterday why is it important cliff to know about the various faith systems as a christian i'm talking to christians now

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:16:37] why should we know about these things because to love someone means to listen to them exactly one of the most active forms of love is listening and if i'm talking to a muslim i better listen
[00:16:51] carefully to understand what they believe and why they believe it and then i'd better be able to communicate what what i believe about jesus and why i believe what's the evidence that christ is true and then i'm praying that god will use by his holy spirit that new information from my
[00:17:07] muslim friend to draw them to christ jesus is not just a good prophet as muhammad taught jesus is more than a good prophet he's god in human form that's why we worship him and a muslim cannot
[00:17:19] worship him because a muslim just worships allah and views jesus simply as a good prophet but Unfortunately, the evidence is Christ claimed to be more than a prophet, claiming to be the eternal preexistent God in human form.
[00:17:32] So he's either a quack, a madman, maybe he's just another man who was deluded, or he is who he claimed to be, God in human form.
[00:17:41] But he's not the middle ground that Muhammad chose, which is Jesus the good prophet.
[00:17:45] By his clear claim to be God in human form, he's either a blasphemer, out of touch with reality, or he's who he claimed to be.
[00:17:52] And I think the resurrection of Christ clearly points to the fact he was not a quack.
[00:17:57] He was not out of touch with reality.
[00:17:59] He was amazingly in touch with reality.
[00:18:02] He is reliable.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:18:04] Cliff, talk to me about the maze of Mormonism, because like you, I have great friends who are Mormons.
[00:18:10] Respect them.
[00:18:11] They're amazing people.
[00:18:13] But Mormonism is not Christianity.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:18:18] Every Mormon friend is a very nice person.
[00:18:20] Every Mormon I've ever met is a loving person.
[00:18:24] Yes, and Brigham Young, I am convinced, were deeply, gravely mistaken when they talked about Jesus not being the unique son of God.
[00:18:38] The idea that we all are going, we Mormon men who follow Mormonism are going to have a plan for you to become gods.
[00:18:46] Yes.
[00:18:46] No, that's polytheism, and Jesus and the whole Bible teach monotheism, that there's only one God, not many gods.
[00:18:52] Exactly.
[00:18:53] Secondly, Mormonism teaches that Jesus and Lucifer once were brothers.
[00:18:57] well if that's true it means jesus had a beginning but the bible clearly teaches that jesus is the eternal god he's not a created being obviously also at one point brigham young and joseph smith
[00:19:09] supported polygamy now i know that polygamy is in the bible and obviously david and solomon were polygamists but that does not mean that the bible is teaching us that polygamy is good you go right back to genesis 2 24 and it's one man and one that's right so i'm convinced that polygamy

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:19:27] is not what the bible teaches brilliant cliff how do you okay over the years in speaking about world religions and faith systems like i have not anywhere near to the group to the degree that you
[00:19:41] have it's it's been interesting because a lot of times people really do a pushback even though i say people matter to god i love muslims i love mormons but let me just talk about the religion
[00:19:56] how do you negotiate that cliff and have you had i'm sure you've had people get angry at you as

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:20:02] well tolerance does not mean such thing as truth this does not mean we agree on everything tolerance means in spite of the fact that we disagree i still respect you and i still love you as a
[00:20:18] fellow human being created in you to god so i think often it comes down to a misdefinition of tolerance which is we all believe the same thing no that is disrespectful an atheist and i do not
[00:20:29] believe the same thing a buddhist and i do not believe the same thing and a muslim and i do not believe the same thing and it's highly disrespectful to say oh no we really do believe the same thing
[00:20:39] so let's be tolerant it's not tolerance if you and i agree i don't have to tolerate you it's when you and i disagree that i have to tolerate you and i would argue that tolerance is
[00:20:48] respecting someone in spite of the fact that you disagree cliff i'm going to end this conversation

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:20:54] with a question you probably never had lobbed at you.
[00:20:58] You've had millions of questions from millions of people, especially college students.
[00:21:03] Here's the question.
[00:21:05] What is your most favorite thing about shark fishing?
[00:21:09] I know.
[00:21:12] Okay, no, no.
[00:21:13] How about what did it feel like when you hooked up to that big lemon shark?
[00:21:22] Yeah, well, I knew you were struggling when you said, brother, this thing is not giving up.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:21:28] One persistent dude.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:21:31] But Cliff, next time, the sharks get bigger and bigger.
[00:21:39] What a great guy, great friend.
[00:21:47] I love Cliff and Sharon Connectly.
[00:21:51] So again, hope you're tracking with us.
[00:21:53] Hinduism is a Peloton religion, a washing machine religion, spin cycle religion of reincarnation.
[00:22:04] you start as a bug maybe they'll spit you out i don't know as a 20 something influencer who knows then you have the big eraser that's buddhism erasing eradicating desire mormonism and and i'm not saying this to make light of mormonism it reads like a celestial spiritual star wars book
[00:22:32] it's it's out there mormonism uses terms and they're taught to do so that seem to be copacetic to those of us who are christians it's like oh salvation yes grace oh yeah forgiveness yes the bible is an authoritative book yes but stop them and say define those terms because the terms
[00:23:00] mean something totally different to a Mormon than they do to those of us who are in Christ.
[00:23:09] When you study Mormonism, you got to study and talk about the founder. Hinduism has no real founder. Buddhism's founder is Siddhartha Gautama. The founder of Mormonism is a very troubled man named Joseph Smith. He was highly confused. He was from New York. And one day he walked out into
[00:23:37] the woods. He was like 14 years old. As he was walking through the woods, he claims that God and Jesus appeared to him and told him that all churches, every church is an abomination. And he
[00:23:53] was the guy to restore the church. So that's how it began. Then you have this angel Moroni appearing to him. He found some golden tablets and through some mysterious Mormon sunglasses, he used the sunglasses to read the gold tablets, which ended up becoming the book of Mormon,
[00:24:22] which Joseph Smith said it's a chronicle of the lost civilization recording of Christ's post-resurrection appearances here in the Americas. There's not one shred of archaeological evidence that substantiates anything in the Book of Mormon. So again, it's allegedly a history of
[00:24:47] a lost civilization in the Americas, descended from the tribes of Israel, chronicling Christ's post-resurrection appearances in the new world. Joseph Smith himself had some issues. He was pegged for the demonic practice of glass-looking, adultery, polygamy, illegal banking, and he was
[00:25:16] killed in a shootout. This is the founder of Mormonism here. So Dr. Walter Martin, who wrote a classic book called The Kingdom of the Cults, said this about Joseph Smith.
[00:25:38] With one dogmatic assertion, Joseph Smith pronounced everybody wrong, all Christian theology an abomination, and all professing Christians corrupt, all in the name of God.
[00:25:50] How strange for this to be presented as restored Christianity when Jesus Christ specifically promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. So when you think about Mormonism, think about three S's. The first S is our savior. You heard Cliff say it. Let me say it
[00:26:14] again. They will say, Mormons will say, oh yeah, Jesus is my savior. Okay. Define Jesus. Well, his brother was Lucifer and it just goes into star Wars from there. So we see, we, we, we,
[00:26:27] we see a major problem. Then salvation, salvation in the Mormon church is through works. They'll say it's through grace grace is part of it they say but it's also following the doctrines the ordinances and have you ever heard about the mormon underwear that you're supposed to wear
[00:26:44] that's a whole nother subject that we won't get into right now in 1982 the book of mormon in this brilliant marketing campaign added this phrase another testament of jesus christ so the mormons prey, P-R-E-Y, on Christians who really don't know their theology, if that makes sense. I do believe
[00:27:06] there are a number of Mormons who want to become Christians. I truly believe that. They just have never, ever really studied it, and they've never, ever really had a chance to understand what it means to know Christ personally. Another S, the third S, is going to be scripture. They'll say,
[00:27:25] oh yeah, the Bible is our authority. Well, not really. Anytime you have a truth text, you're dealing with a false religion. A truth text is like, okay, yeah, I believe the Bible, but this text over here is just as important. In Mormonism, the Bible comes in fourth. You've got
[00:27:40] the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, the Doctrine of Covenants, and then the Bible.
[00:27:45] so so so we see these these issues these these problems already so Jesus is not in the Mormon church who Jesus is to you and to me so just think about those Mormons also believe this is this is a
[00:28:06] really weird that that God was once human and he he was obedient to his heavenly father and now lives on his planet with his wives god are you ready for this again i'm not joking when i say
[00:28:20] star wars and he's procreating spiritual babies and these spiritual babies enter physical babies on earth and the goal of mormonism if you're a good mormon if you do all these things and work and and and the ordinances and the doctrines and and and and you you follow joseph smith's
[00:28:41] teachings and everything. If you're a really good Mormon, guys, you will have your own planet and you'll have all these wives and you'll have celestial sex forever. I'm not sure what's in it for the ladies, but you can definitely tell the guy thought this religion of, can't you?
[00:29:04] There's a little bit of vibe of reincarnation into Mormonism as well. Here's what Joseph Smith said about the book of Mormon. This is an interesting quote. He said, I told the brethren that the book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone of our religion.
[00:29:22] And a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than any other book. Since the writing of the book of Mormon, there's been over 2,200 changes in it. The Pearl of Great Price is another
[00:29:40] book which talks about the importance of the baptism of the dead baptism for the dead and it talks about temple marriage and the doctrine the covenants is another book and it it it talks about uh various subjects and then you have the the book of abraham it's translated from papyrus
[00:30:02] found inside mummies joseph smith bought from a traveling salesman and of course these were deemed fraud. So that's just a little bit about Mormonism. Mormonism, if I had to do this, I would say Hinduism takes us in Buddhism about right here. Mormonism maybe takes us about right
[00:30:28] here. Judaism almost gets us halfway. See, we have a shortfall, don't we? We have a problem, an issue. And all of these people, many of these people are well-meaning. I'm not, again, let me say it again. I'm not hating on Hindus or bashing Buddhists or maligning the Mormons. I'm just
[00:30:50] talking about their religion. So you can be sincere, yet sincerely wrong. People say, man, he's sincere. She's sincere. Oh, okay. I can sincerely go, I don't believe in the law of gravity. After this service, I'm going to climb on this ladder, jump off the roof of Fellowship
[00:31:09] Church. I just, I sincerely don't believe. Well, bam, I'd face plant on the asphalt, wouldn't I?
[00:31:18] That's why we need to speak the truth in love. That's why we need to pray for everyone. That's why we need to understand what people believe and what people are dealing with. A couple of quick
[00:31:33] texts, and then we're done. Revelation chapter 22. Here's the difference. 18 and 19. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from
[00:31:55] this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Man, I wish the Bible was direct. Matthew 7,
[00:32:09] watch out, Jesus said, for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Again, the big picture. Hinduism, escape. Buddhism, detachment.
[00:32:25] Mormonism, becoming.
[00:32:28] Christianity, grace, and mercy.
[00:32:32] So if you're on this construction plan, this man-made construction plan with your hard hat and safety goggles and red wings, trash that, park the crane, and accept the bridge God has built to you because the bridge God has built to you
[00:32:54] is not a bridge to nowhere. It's a bridge to somewhere. And that somewhere is someone named you. In the early nineties, we just kicked off fellowship church and there was a billionaire that was before billionaires were cool. You know, now everyone's a billionaire and there was a
[00:33:15] billionaire that came to our church and he was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And just because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you're brilliant. Did you know that? If you find a niche, it'll make you rich. Now, a lot of billionaires are brilliant. I'm just saying, you find out
[00:33:34] someone's a billionaire, don't go, well, he must be, she must be so much more intelligent than me.
[00:33:40] I mean, yeah, they're smart and everything, but they're regular people. Anyway, this billionaire invited Lisa and I over to his house, and he questioned me about Christianity. Here I am.
[00:33:49] I mean, I'm 29, 30 years old, and he's talking to me about all these world religions and things, and I'm just sharing with him the gospel and bringing him back to the person of Christ.
[00:34:01] So it was time for us to leave.
[00:34:03] So we walked through this house.
[00:34:05] It was so big, we had to pack a lunch to go from one side to the other.
[00:34:08] And we finally walked outside and he looked at me before we got into our car and he said, you know, Ed, I appreciate you talking to me, but I'm kind of a cafeteria style guy.
[00:34:20] I want to take something from Buddhism, something from Hinduism, Hinduism, something from Islam, and something from Christianity, and kind of mix them all together. That's where I am. And I looked at him, and I know the Holy Spirit gave me these words.
[00:34:38] I said, you know, if you go to all of the tombs of the leaders of the world religions, they're occupied. But you go to Christ's tomb, it's empty. And I said, I don't know about you,
[00:34:53] but I'm putting my money on the one who came back from the grave. Lord Jesus, thank you for this message. Thank you for your grace and love. Thank you that we can just openly and honestly talk
[00:35:10] about these world religions. And I pray God, if there's someone here and you're from another world religion or from another faith system, maybe you're on this construction plan. It's time to trash the construction plant. If you're a Hindu
[00:35:27] or a Buddhist or a Mormon, I'm going to challenge you to throw away the red wings, put away the safety goggles, park the crane and say, God, I want to walk your bridge. I believe you,
[00:35:40] God, sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins and rise again and to build this bridge. Not to nowhere but to somewhere and that somewhere is someone named me and I give my
[00:35:51] life to you. Just reach shout to Jesus and say, Jesus, I give my life to you. Others of you might be like, well, you know, I'm not quite ready for that, Ed. I need to study some more. If that's you, awesome. You continue to
[00:36:04] kick tires and test the waters. But if you're open, I'm telling you, God's going to reveal himself to you. He already has today by you being here. So Lord, we thank you for this time and we
[00:36:15] give this time to you. And we ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen.
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